"Colombo will mislead the world on aid distribution"- Kilinochchi paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 23 January 2005, 15:11 GMT]The Tamil daily Eelanatham, published in Killinochchi,
warned in its Sunday editorial that Chandrika Kumaratunge's
government will again mislead the world on distribution of the
aid received for tsunami relief. The paper called on the donors to also set up mechanisms and procedures to ensure an equitable distribution of aid to all those affected, among them two thirds are from the NorthEast of Sri Lanka.

Excerpts from the editorial follow:

"All visiting heads of states giving aid to Sri
Lanka for tsunami relief have insisted to the Sri Lankan
government that their aid must reach all the affected
people. UN Secretary General also emphasised this during his
visit. The deputy foreign minister of Norway and the
Norwegian special envoy Eric Solheim added their voice to international voices when they met Mr. D M Dissanayake, the deputy minister of rehabilitation and
resettlement. Government of Chandrika Kumaratunge responded saying they will be distributing the aid to all affected people."

"There are, however, no signs on ground, that relief is
reaching the Tamil homelands of northeast in an equitable
manner. Although dry ration consignments have been sent
to northeast after substantial delay, other types of relief material have failed to reach NorthEast. The major portion of the aid given to the government is distributed to the southern Sri Lanka, to Galle, Matara and Hambantotta."

"Yet, the government is also very keen to give the impression
that they are sending relief to northeast. In order to give
weight to this, the Sri Lanka government has asked the LTTE
representatives to be in the government's tsunami relief
task force. In reality the government has taken no efforts
to rehabilitate affected areas in northeast."

"Government's dishonesty does not stop here. It has placed obstacles to the relief work carried out by the
locals in northeast. It is to assist the Government officials to disrupt the relief work that the government has passed Emergency Regulation, appointed military heads to be responsible for the relief work. If the intentions are sincere these actions are not necessary."

"Chandika Kumaratunge's government has clearly demonstrated that it has not stepped out of its oppressor mentality
towards the Tamil people. It has shown that it is willing to use
Emergency Regulation and the armed forces to oppress even when peoples lives are decimated by tsunami disaster."

"Given all of this, talking of equitable distribution of
tsunami relief aid and talking about working together with
the LTTE in the rehabilitation effort are not only empty
gestures they are fraudulent conduct by the
government. Therefore, those foreign countries that are
giving aid in the name of the people affected by the tsunami
must also work out the means of ensuring that that the
relief reach the affected people. If they fail to ensure
equitable distribution the world as well as the Tamil
people will be deceived by the Sri Lankan government."